1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sample holder for an x-ray powder diffractometer which uses an ultrasonic radiator either to reduce the texture effects of the sample or to induce a crystallization process from glasses or crystal obtained by the freezing of liquids or gases.
X-ray powder diffraction is an important technique for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of polycrystalline materials. The device described here is intended to extend the applicability of the x-ray powder diffraction method to classes of materials which are not normally analyzed by this technique and to improve the quality of x-ray powder diffraction data for other classes of materials for which texture effects present problems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional method for preparing specimens for analysis by x-ray powder diffraction normally involves the grinding of the sample to produce crystallites of small and equal size in random orientations. The successful application of the x-ray powder diffraction method for the identification and quantitative analysis of materials requires a statistical distribution of crystallite orientations to produce a diffraction pattern which is reproducible. For many types of specimens, it is difficult, time-consuming, and often impossible to obtain samples which exhibit statistically distributed crystallite orientations through the grinding process alone. The effects of non-statistical orientations which result from texture effects may be reduced to some extent by rotating the sample in a plane. However, rotating sample holders generally reduce texture effects in only one plane.